Latest Workers' Compensation Headlines
All the headlines from our Workers' Compensation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Opinion
Dec 18 2005 // Health Care Networks: A New Approach for Workers’ Compensation in Texas House Bill 7 enacted sweeping workers’ compensation reforms. One of those reforms was the establishment of health care provider networks....
Choice of Medical Care Provider Affects Injured Worker Outcomes
Dec 18 2005 // The choice of medical care providers to treat injured workers by either workers or their employer not only impacts medical costs but also a variety of outcomes for injured workers, according to a study by the Workers...
News Briefs
Dec 18 2005 // FLORIDA State Farm of Florida 8.6 Percent Rate Request Approved The Florida Department of Insurance approved an average statewide premium rate hike of 8.6 percent for State Farm of Florida, the largest insurer of homes in...
Florida Authorities ‘Draw a Line in the Sand,’ Tighten Workers’ Comp Enforcement
Dec 16 2005 // In October, 2003, when the Florida Legislature approved an updated workers’ compensation program, legislators “drew a line in the sand,” according to Andrew Sabolic, chief of the Florida Bureau of...
Maine Allows 1.2% Workers’ Comp Rate Hike Starting in Jan.
Dec 15 2005 // The Maine Bureau of Insurance has modified the request of the industry’s National Council on Compensation Insurance for an average 1.8 percent increase in workers’ compensation rates for policy year 2006 to 1.2...
Calif. Man Sentenced Following Plea on Pair of Workers’ Comp Fraud Counts
Dec 15 2005 // Ventura County (California) District Attorney Gregory Totten reported that Everardo Ramirez Vega (DOB 11-28-1967) was recently sentenced after his plea on two felony counts of workers’ compensation fraud. The...
OSHA Responds to Gulf Coast Cleanup with New Guidelines
Dec 15 2005 // The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Washington D.C., announced a new safety and health guidance document, posted today on their Web site. The OSHA document will help workers and employers in determining...
Conn. Approves Industry’s Workers’ Comp Rate Boost
Dec 14 2005 // Connecticut Insurance Commissioner Susan Cogswell has approved a slight boost in workers compensation insurance rates effective Jan. 1. She accepted the recommendations from the industry’s National Council on...
NCCI Report Criticizes S.C. Workers’ Compensation Plan
Dec 14 2005 // The National Council on Compensation Insurance has issued an independent evaluation of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s workers’ compensation overhaul proposal and says the governor’s top...
S.C. Panel Proposes Workers’ Compensation Changes
Dec 13 2005 // A South Carolina workers’ compensation panel has reported to Gov. Mark Sanford that changing the workers’ compensation system is the key to making the state a better place to grow business and create jobs. In...
Six Arrested in Suspected Calif. Workers’ Comp Fraud Ring
Dec 13 2005 // California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has announced the arrest of six suspects following a two-year, multi-agency undercover investigation into an alleged insurance fraud “mill” that reportedly...
Okeechobee, Fla. Building Contractor Apprehended for Workers’ Comp Fraud, Grand Theft
Dec 12 2005 // Okeechobee building contractor Merle Dee Johnson has been bonded out of the Okeechobee County Jail after being arrested by Florida investigators for allegedly committing workers’ compensation fraud and grand theft....
Texas Gov. Names Darwin Public Counsel for Injured Employees
Dec 9 2005 // Texas Gov. Rick Perry named Norman W. Darwin of Weatherford to serve as Injured Employee Public Counsel in the Office of Injured Employee Counsel (OIEC) for a term to expire Feb. 1, 2007. Created under House Bill 7 during...
N.Y. Insurance Fund Names Wehner as Executive Director
Dec 8 2005 // David P. Wehner, who has been chairman of the state’s Workers Compensation Board since 2004, has left that post to become executive director of the New York State Insurance Fund. Wehner fills the vacancy left by the...
Texas Workers’ Comp Train the Trainer Seminar to be Held Dec. 14
Dec 7 2005 // The Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation will present a one-day educational seminar entitled Train the Trainer, on Dec. 14, 2005, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., in Austin. Registration begins at...
W. Va. Workers’ Comp Chief Warns Employers Failing to Pay
Dec 7 2005 // As it spins off as a private insurance program, West Virginia’s workers’ compensation program will show little patience with employers that fail to pay their premiums, its executive director said Monday. As of...
Fla. Town Hall Meetings Scheduled to Update Employers, Employees About Workers’ Comp
Dec 6 2005 // A series of town hall workshops will be held this month in Orlando, Tampa and Ft. Myers, Fla. to give employers and employees updated information on the state’s workers’ compensation system and to answer...
Venture Hospitality Adds Workers’ Comp Market
Dec 5 2005 // Venture Insurance Programs has announced that its hospitality program – Venture Hospitality – has added another workers’ compensation market. The workers’ compensation product is underwritten by...
OSHA CAVE-IN FINDING:
Dec 5 2005 // A Franklin, New Hampshire contractor faces $50,750 in fines from the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for allegedly failing to supply cave-in protection at a Boscawen jobsite....
Congress Hears of Jockeys’ Workers Compensation Woes
Dec 5 2005 // Racetrack executives appeared before a House panel in Washington last month arguing that congressional action is not necessary to solve industry problems, including a recent lapse in health insurance for jockeys that left...
